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Inside the Team Sky service course

Every rider gets a specific storage area for their bikes in the Team Sky service course

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Sky travel with portable air conditioning units to ensure riders have a comfortable sleeping environment on the road

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The Sky service course also includes a rather commodious apartment on the second floor, for visiting riders and staff

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Team bikes see lots of rain, so it's important to seal critical components from water when possible

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At the Tour de France, teams are supposedly assigned hotels at random by race organizer ASO. The quality of the hotels can vary tremendously, so Sky play it safe and bring clean sheets, mattresses and pillows. Even Bradley Wiggins has to endure sub-par hotels from time to time

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Sky team staff travel in advance to that night's hotel, to prep the rooms before riders arrive. Sleep is critical for recovery, so the team actually travel with their own bedding - including memory foam mattresses - so that each rider has a consistent bed on which to sleep

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Soft-sided bike travel cases from British company DHB are piled up in one area of the service course

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Bikes are neatly clamped to one wall of the course. A team the size of Sky can easily have three campaigns running concurrently, so a huge inventory of equipment is required

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Whiteboards in the mechanics' area include important notes for equipment flow, pending tasks and other communications

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Team Sky consume tens of thousands of bottles each season. This entire stack is nothing but bottles - and this isn't even a complete year's allotment

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Sky and component sponsor Shimano work very closely together on products. Any items that have failed - for whatever reason, including crashes - are sent back to Shimano for evaluation

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Components are kept in this caged-off area. Security is obviously a major concern

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Soigneurs get their own separate storage area

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The Sky service course is mostly just one giant warehouse space, with the exception of the offices, a second-floor apartment and these cages for additional secure storage

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Not surprisingly given the title sponsor, Sky regularly shoot, edit and post their own video content for use on the team website

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The team doesn't just have bikes to look after - vehicles are maintained and serviced as well

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Steel cassettes last longer and are much cheaper in the quantities required by the team

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Mark Cavendish's Pinarellos stray from the stark black-and-white paint scheme only slightly, with a set of rainbow stripes around the seat stay wishbone and on the PRO stem

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Team sponsor Morgan Blue provide a variety of different chain lubricants

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Like many top teams, Sky have their own chef to help ensure the riders are properly fed during key events

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Team mechanics are constantly washing things: bikes, vehicles, etc. Mechanics even have their own bins for personal gear

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The cage on the left is used to store team helmets, shoes and clothing. The one on the right is for the teams' 'carers' and contains items such as towels and food

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No work area is complete without a steady supply of coffee

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Sky are heavily invested in Shimano's Di2 electronic technology. Mechanics are constantly in need of wiring harnesses for new frames

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Pallets of drinks are stacked high

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Team Sky probably have more Coca-Cola on hand at any given moment than many supermarkets

Riders are free to choose fork rakes based on their own handling preferences, so a separate stock is kept on hand

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New frames, still in the factory bubble wrap, are marked with each rider's name

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Boxes of new Pinarello frames are stacked nearly to the ceiling

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Aluminum bars are stored on a separate shelf to carbon ones

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Scores of carbon handlebars are sorted by size and bend

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Team riders and staff are treated to an enormous supply of clothing for both on the bike and off. Even staff members get fully custom riding kit, too

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Team mechanics use jigs such as this one to accurately set up new bikes

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Team Sky have a lot of vehicles and doors in their inventory. We visited the service course during the Spring Classics, so many of the vehicles were on the road

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Some bike shops may never see this many Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 levers in a full year

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Linens for the apartment located atop the service course are neatly stored

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The service course is deceptively huge. It's obviously big when you walk in but it actually extends much further than you would expect. The apartment is located up top, while multiple offices occupy the first floor behind this wall

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Sky even have their own olive oil

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Various backpacks for the team staff

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Team staff can easily bring vehicles inside for servicing, loading and unloading

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This drawer contains consumables such as brake pads and bearings

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Instead of the usual serrated washers, Sky team mechanics mount brake calipers with brass washers, which they say are easier on the frames

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Mechanics keep parts carefully organized

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Heaps of boxes of Shimano componentry are kept on hand at any given moment

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Team Sky riders don't have to worry about the quality of their pillows while they're on the road. The team bring their own so each rider can get a good night's sleep

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Each rider has his own rain bag where he stores preferred items of clothing

Team Sky have only occupied their new service course in Deinze, Belgium, since November. But with an estimated annual budget of more than €15 million, it's already seen more high-end gear than most bicycle shops will turn over in their lifetime.

It's always the rider that has to pedal the bike. But BikeRadar visited the course in April and what we found supports the notion that Sky expend an awful lot of time, energy and money to ensure that's the only thing they have to worry about.

Sky team members certainly don't seem to be lacking in terms of equipment. Each of the team's 28 riders gets a minimum of three road race bikes and one time trial bike (riders such as Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish get more). Every rider also gets a road bike for home use and, in some instances, a TT rig. Factor in special machines for events like Paris-Roubaix, the occasional custom paint job and spare bikes and frames and, well, you do the math…

Each of those bikes also requires all of the necessary parts to build them up at the beginning of the season plus a sufficient allotment of spares to account for wear and crashes. And then, of course, none of those bikes has just one set of wheels associated with it. Add in race wheels of various depths and with different tires glued, training wheels and the scores of special wheels just for Paris-Roubaix and you're looking at a staggering amount of equipment.

Bradley wiggins had grip tape applied to his fizik ares time trial saddle but the uci have since banned the practice:

Grip tape on Bradley Wiggins's Fizik Ares saddle in April, since banned by the UCI

According to service course manager Andy Verrall, there are about 150 bikes on hand at the service course at any given moment – which doesn't include bikes currently being used. The team go through roughly 600 chains and nearly 35,000 water bottles in a single season.

It's not just hard goods, either. Sky currently employ about 50 full-time staff members, including eight mechanics, eight soigneurs (Sky call them carers), two physiotherapists and four doctors. Additional freelancers are hired on demand.

Needless to say, it's a lot to manage, but Verrall says that everything is meticulously tracked – even inner tubes.

Power meter inventory is monitored especially stringently, not just because of the component cost but also the importance and quantity. SRM supply the team with some, and Sky also buy additional units. Even then, though, there aren't enough to go around.

"It’s a big investment, so sometimes we have to switch cranks between the time trial bike, race bike and so on," Verrall told us. "It's an important part of the team because everybody's looking at their training data. Each SRM has got its own calibration number, so we can track it and everyone knows what's going on. We can't just have people coming in and taking an SRM off another bike and walking away with it. Everything's controlled – where it goes, whose bike it goes on, and there's a plan."

Verrell said that Sky can have up to four events running concurrently, each with its own unique rider roster and mobile fleet of support staff, equipment and vehicles scattered across the globe. Needless to say, logistics is a major concern, and there's a full-time staffer who does nothing but manage who and what goes where and when in as efficient a manner as possible.

Each rider has his own rain bag where he stores preferred items of clothing:

Each rider has his own rain bag, in which he can store preferred kit items

Part of that efficiency is trying to minimize vehicle movement when possible.

"On the truck we keep five groupsets, plus all the different shapes and sizes of handlebars, stems, etcetera," said Verrell. "You need stuff here to top the trucks up. One thing we try to do is keep the movement of the trucks down. We'll just send a car down or we'll ship to a hotel if the mechanics say, 'We need this,' or, 'We need topping up.'

"It's pointless to drive a truck all the back from Spain back here, just to take it back again the next week. We'll park it up at someone's house or find somewhere safe, and someone will fly up and fly back, or it might just be easier for them to stay down there for a few days. They can work on the bikes on the truck where they are. If you come back you've got a two-day drive back and another two-day drive out and you've lost a week."

Extensive travel is often unavoidable for the riders, though, and even Sky don't get to choose their own hotels during the Tour de France. The quality of the establishments can vary tremendously – some are quite luxurious but some are downright awful. The team's 'marginal gains' initiative seems to address even that, though. After all, a rider can't race if they haven't been able to rest the night before.

Team mechanics keep careful watch on all of the gear that goes in and out of the service course. even inner tubes and bottle cages are counted: team mechanics keep careful watch on all of the gear that goes in and out of the service course. even inner tubes and bottle cages are counted

Team mechanics keep a careful eye on all gear leaving and entering the service course

Sky actually send a dedicated staff member well ahead of the rest of the team, to prep the hotel rooms for the evening. This process includes a thorough cleaning and a wholesale replacement of standard bedding, with linens the team supply themselves.

Even the mattresses and pillows are replaced with Sky-issue gear, and riders get to choose their preferred firmness levels so that, at least in theory, they get to sleep in the same bed each night regardless of where they are.